Your Student May Be Abusing Drugs

A Growing Epidemic

According to a survey of young adults ages 18 to 25 by the Partnership for a Drug Free America, 1 in 6 has misused or abused prescription stimulant medication. The most popular smart drugs abused by young adults are Adderall (60 percent), Ritalin (20 percent), and Vyvanase (14 percent).

Students who abuse smart drugs aren’t stereotypical troubled kids. According to the survey, students on smart drugs are more likely to identify as leaders and social hubs for friends who enjoy being the center of attention.

They also were more likely than non-abusers to struggle with finding a balance between activities and personal life, and they were more likely to hold full-time jobs while attending school and to receive no financial support from their parents. They’re independent, driven, high achievers who are socially active – just like Kyle.

How Smart Drugs Work

Adderall consists of four timed-released amphetamines that cause the release of two key neurotransmitters: dopamine and norepinephrine. Within the brain, these neurotransmitters increase alertness, improve cognitive performance, and boost the mood.

For students who actually suffer from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), these medications can be a boon, significantly improving both academic performance and quality of life. Those with ADHD find they feel more alert and less fatigued when taking Adderall and other smart drugs.

But, for students who don’t have ADHD, while taking smart drugs also enhances cognitive performance there’s a catch, and it’s related to the two neurotransmitters. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, dopamine stimulates the brain’s reward circuits, causing many addicts to experience a high and a sense of pleasure.

In response to this dopamine flood, however, the brain starts making less of its own dopamine and fewer reward circuit cells to respond to dopamine, which means addicts need more of the drug to experience the same effects.

Although the role of norepinephrine in drug addiction is still the subject of much speculation, researchers writing for the Biological Psychiatry Journal suggest that norepinephrine makes people feel a sense of stress or anxiety when they stop taking drugs. This anxiety creates a feedback loop that causes a smart drug abuser to become dependent on the medication. It also makes withdrawal physically and mentally grueling. As one 20-year-old college student explains:

“My use of Adderall as a study aid, 20 milligrams every so often, quickly escalated into 100+ milligrams daily doses within six months of meeting a student who’d sell me his entire script for $60 each month. Amphetamine tolerance builds very quickly, and soon I wasn’t able to obtain the energy and focus for which I came to depend upon amphetamines. I finally got help for my addiction, but I had to take time off of school to heal the damage I’d done to my brain chemistry.”

Why Do They Do It?

Most smart drug abusers are seeking what Swiss researchers call “neuroenhancement.” In a November 2013 PLOS One study, the Swiss team revealed insights from a study of over 6,000 students from the University of Zurich, the University of Basel, and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich.

Neuroenhancement, according to the Swiss students, is about boosting both cognitive and emotional functioning. Students want to be more alert, improve concentration, and boost their memory capacity. They also want to experience better moods and eliminate fatigue.

Most of the time, in universities all over the world, a college student’s desire for neuroenhancement coincides with term paper due dates or tough examinations. “Whenever midterms or finals come around, people come out of the woodwork to beg for my pills,” a 20-year-old college male from Cleveland told The New York Times. “I get text messages from unrecognized numbers asking, ‘Do you have any Addy?'”

Too Much Pressure

To be fair, not every student who abuses smart drugs is a full-time overachiever. “Adderall enabled partiers and procrastinators to wait until the last minute before studying (and to push that ‘last minute’ later and later) while still receiving respectable low B’s or C’s,” a 22-year-old California student claims. “I noticed the most prevalent stimulant use among college students who were not extremely driven to get good grades; rather, they were more interested in socializing or were too lazy to start studying sooner.”

At the same time, increased parental and social pressure for high achievement is often a factor in smart drug abuse. For many students, this pressure starts as early as middle school, and it increases during high school as students compete for prime slots in the best colleges.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, 1 in 10 kids between the ages of 5 and 17 have been diagnosed with ADHD. In some cases, children and young adults who have prescriptions for drugs like Adderall share their medications with peers who don’t have ADHD. Some even sell individual pills to make extra money.

For many students who’ve taken smart drugs to boost their grades, the circumstantial rewards matter more than the euphoric feelings associated with smart drug abuse. One 26-year-old male told The New York Times, “Used Adderall for the SAT. Boosted my score. Admitted to good schools. End of story. I did grit my teeth when using … but it was a small price to pay.”

Warning Signs

The human brain continues to develop well into a person’s mid-20s. In a brain still under construction, smart drugs can cause chronic depression and anxiety. When a person without ADHD takes smart drugs, the amygdala, which is the part of the brain that regulates emotion and aggression, can become overactive.

Once the brain starts to make less of its own dopamine, it’s difficult to stimulate it to make more on its own. This can lead to severe depression, mood dysregulation, and, in the worst-case scenarios, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.

When to Worry

To Kyle’s parents, the warning signs of Adderall abuse looked like the normal stressed-out reaction of an overachieving young adult. They knew he took Adderall sometimes, but they didn’t know it was endangering his life.

Some parents notice a change in the time of day they receive phone calls and text messages while others notice changes in the way students spend money. They also notice changes in hygiene or grooming. Unfortunately, many college students, on their own for the first time, abuse their sleep schedules, spend money unwisely, and roll out of bed and go to class without changing clothes. It’s tough to tell whether these behaviors are normal growing pains or signs of real trouble.

Like Kyle, many smart drug abusers begin to experience alternating periods of exhilaration and severe depression. They may also experience a number of other physical and emotional symptoms, including:

• Overconfidence
• Aggression or argumentativeness
• Irritability
• Insomnia
• Delusions
• Paranoia
• Excessive sweating
• Weight loss
• Rapid or rambling speech
• Dilated pupils or reddened eyes

Some students taking smart drugs also experience rapid heartbeat or dangerous increases in blood pressure. For these symptoms, students should seek immediate medical attention.

Not every student feels hyperactive or euphoric while taking smart drugs. Some describe feeling more like a “zombie or a robot.” In some cases, taking smart drugs becomes a gateway to taking other drugs. Students may abuse Xanax for a calming effect, or they may combine stimulants with binge drinking or heroin use.